MGT5000 Management and OrganisationalBehaviour: Assignment 1

Task 1: Scenario (501 words)

The scenario I am reflecting on is where I was hired as the Manager of an inner-city Sydney travel agency that had been going through a major downturn in business and low individual job performance following problems relating to business management, individual behaviour, team morale and low motivation. I was appointed as Manager of the ##### travel agency by the Area Leader, Rochelle, who managed and oversaw fourteen other #### agencies within the inner-city area. Rochelle explained that the previous Manager (Michelle) and her staff members had recently resigned within short succession, following an extended period of poor performance of the agency. It was Rochelle s objective to have a Manager that would rebuild the agency back to full staff and improve the motivation, morale, teamwork and thus the performance of the team.

Ideally, the agency should operate with one Manager and three staff members, usually of varying experience due to the moderate turnover nature of the position. However, the previous team was gone completely. After the previous team s departure, the office had been operating for two months with only one full time salesperson, David, with a part-time salesperson, Helen, joining after one month, and the only management help was Rochelle occasionally coming in to help with back office management.

Some of the problems of the previous team leading to the situation were explained as the steady decline in team and individual production; reports from other colleagues in the area of the team s negative attitudes towards the business, their work duties and overall organisation; complaints from customers of rudeness and bad service; and the apparent intention of the Manager to resign in order to go travelling.

Since both David and Helen were transferred from within the area s other offices, they were not oblivious to what was happening, since the area of fourteen offices has regular group meetings and social events - particularly the monthly performance events highlighting the area s sales results. Seeing a consistent decline in performance and hearing negativity about things like the location of the office and the type of customers, co https://picasaweb.google.com/darrensee21/NBATShirtsRM90Each#uld have led to David and Helen having an altered perception and expectancy of this particular office.

When I started as Manager, David explained to me that the times when he was there by himself he did not enjoy going to work unlike at his previous office, often arriving late, since there was no-one to say otherwise, and contemplating resignation although he had always liked the work. Helen improved his personal well-being as he liked having someone around, but their attitudes and perception to the work were still negative. They were not performing well, even though they seemed to have positive dispositions as people in general and who had enough experience to perform to company expectations. Their personal expectations were low, motivation was low, and while they became friends, working together in adversity, there was no business or organisational morale since they were both negative about the current work situation, and so overall job performance was suffering.

Task 2.1 - Impact of Events on Attitudes and Perceptions (502 words)

It could be observed that the attitudes and perceptions of David and Helen had been affected prior to their joining the new office. As they had worked in other performing offices and became aware of the situations that led to the decline of this particular office by the previous team, it may have had an adverse affect. After hearing the previous team s negative attitudes towards the business (such as bad location, bad customers, etc), they could have adopted the similar negative attitude that it was not possible to perform well in that office - an attitude being a pre-disposition to respond positively or negatively to someone or something in your environment (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 54). And with perceptions being influenced by attitude, and in turn influencing behaviour (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 63), they had the perception that the environment of the new office would not allow them to perform well. To exemplify the above, the negative attitude that the office has bad customers , may lead to the staff perceiving that all customers that come in will be bad customers.

A compounding factor, or possibly an alternative reasoning, is that negative perceptions and attitudes could have developed when joining the new office and finding no managerial structure or staff, no plans or goals in place, the agency accounts in disarray, regular customers still needing servicing, and feeling like responsibility for performance was fully on them. The individual performance equation states: performance = individual attributes x work effort x organisational support, if any of these factors is missing high performance is unachievable. (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 40) Lack of organisational support in this case could be seen to be a major contributor to poor performance as well as to the staff s attitude.

Each office is run as a separate business within a business, so daily and weekly accounting, reconciliations, and general business management responsibilities still needed to be executed. However, without a manager and full time staff, the duties were required to be fulfilled by David and, to a lesser degree, Helen. Given that these business responsibilities fall within the manager s role, David

experienced a decline in job satisfaction the degree to which an individual feels positively or negatively about work (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 56). In particular, due to inadequacy of pay or negative equity - since he was doing manager s work but not receiving manager s remuneration and lack of supervision (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 57). Referring again to the individual performance equation, this has a negative effect on work effort due to a decline of motivation to work.

In contrast to David, whose thoughts of resignation had diminished with the arrival of new staff, Helen had expressed interest to resign in order to go travelling, but was still working. She could have been observed to be experiencing cognitive dissonance, in that she had negative attitudes and behaviour towards the work, but also had not yet made the decision to leave (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 56).

Task 2.2 - Two Relevant Motivational Theories and impact of events in scenario upon the motivation of staff (547 words)

Theory One: Process Theory - Equity Theory

Equity theory, based on the theory of J Stacy Adams (1963), is relevant to this scenario when gauging the motivation of David and Helen based on their feelings of equity. Equity theory is the idea that motivation is affected when people feel that work outcomes are inequitable when comparing their inputs/outputs to others. Felt negative equity is when a person believes their rewards are less than others in proportion to work inputs, and felt positive equity when they believe their rewards are greater than others for their work inputs (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 94). It could be seen that both negative and positive equity exist in this situation.

David was experiencing felt negative equity, since he was the only full-time employee in the office and had been expected to fulfil certain management duties to compensate for the missing manager. However he was still being paid less than a manager, at the rate of a regular salesperson. Comparing himself to workers of similar pay in other offices, he had a greater work load and responsibility than them. Further, the time required performing these managerial duties meant he was missing out on customer sales which earned him rewards in the form of commission salary. This could negatively affect his motivation to work.

Conversely, it could be argued that Helen experienced felt positive equity, given that she only worked 3 days per week (pro-rata salesperson salary), but wasn t expected to fulfil the manager duties, and could

focus on customer sales. In comparison to David, her rewards were greater than his which could affect her motivation.

The table below summarises some possible responses by David and Helen to restore a sense of equity (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 94).

|Behaviours to restore equity |

|David

|Helen

|1. Change work inputs |Reduce performance effort, take longer breaks, arrive |Fulfil job descriptions in terms of punctuality, | | |late to work, omit tasks deemed not urgent or customers than David, and | | David |unimportant, less focus on customers | |breaks, servicing more

|possibly being extra nice to

|2. Change the outcomes received |Not possible for raise fixed organisation salary |While being punctual and servicing customers, a | | |rates and new manager to start "sometime soon", also |reduction in sales performance to not earn more | | | | |unable to increase commission salary due to extra |commission than David

|duties

|3. Leave the situation quit to take overseas travel |

|While in office by himself he had feelings of a desire|Makes plans to | | |

|to quit

|4. Change the comparison points |Compare with employee in other office temporarily |Compare with other part-time employees that have a | | |without manager. |manager |

|5.Psycholigically distort the comparisons |New manager to start in near future so should only be |New manager to start in near future, but might be | | | |inequitable in short term |quitting anyway

|6. Act to change inputs or outputs of offer to help David with certain tasks |comparison person |

|Could ask Helen to help out with certain tasks | |

|Could

Theory Two: Content Theory- Hertzberg s Two Factor Theory

According to Hertzberg s two-factor theory, by identifying and separating factors that cause an individual employee to have satisfaction or dissatisfaction at work, he could identify those factors that can be considered motivating factors. Dissatisfying factors are known as hygiene factors, and consist of things such as: company policy, supervision, work conditions, personal life, and work relationships. Factors causing satisfaction are known as motivating factors and include such things as: achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and growth (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 89).

The relevance to this scenario is to be able to identify hygiene factors causing dissatisfaction and those not providing satisfaction or motivation. Both David and Helen have high dissatisfaction from: lack of supervision, hard work conditions, company policy and administration (for allowing them to be in this situation), and even low job security since they are not performing at expected levels. They are not being satisfied by motivating factors since they are not enjoying the work itself, and they aren t achieving results, so there is no recognition, chance for advancement or growth.

Hertzberg believes that Managers should use motivating factors in order to motivate employees, and not simply remove the dissatisfiers (Ellis and Dick 2000, p. 43), since removing or reducing them only leads to less dissatisfaction, not satisfaction. Further, he doesn t cite money as a significant motivator, but his theory omits individual differences: different people have different needs for money (Mitchell and Mickel, 1999).

As the new manager, finding the right balance and application of motivating theories will be imperative to the future success of the employees and organisation.

Task 2.3 - Group Dynamics (538 words)

The #### organisation would be considered a formal group, identified by the organisational structure, with this office being a functional group since it operates as a full-time department team performing ongoing work to achieve organisational objectives. Group dynamics are the forces that operate in groups that affect task performance and human resource maintenance (Wiesner, 2010).

While there are a number of models on group development - such as Tuckman (1965) or Gersick (1988) this office group is in the early stages of group formation regardless of which model is used. However, observing the Tuckman model, the Forming stage determining the accepted behaviour, real tasks and rules of the group could become complicated, since such factors as: having multiple memberships (eg. organisation, social events); prior experience with group members in other contexts (monthly area meetings); and impressions of organisation philosophies, goals and policies may affect how the members initially behave in the newly formed group (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 218). This stage and the Storming stage will be important in determining how timely and effectively the group can reach the Initial and Total integration stages to become a mature, organised and well-functioning group (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 219).

The group would be aware of the required behaviours of the organisation, such as punctuality, customer service and staff co-operation, but new emergent behaviours may arise such as David taking on new tasks to maintain order while there was no manager (Homans in Wood et. al. 2010).

To become an effective team the group must have shared commitment which they are accountable for, use complementary skills and function as a unit, thereby creating synergy . (Wood et. al. 2010, p.241). ##### expects the group to operate like a self-managing team (SMT), a business within a business. The teams should share office tasks between them, manage their individual businesses (their own customers and sales), are accountable for team performance and can perform various team jobs. SMTs can realise improved productivity and work attitudes, and reduction in absenteeism and turnover. (Wood et. al. 2010, p.259-260).

An important aspect of any team is the set of norms the standards of behaviour expected - and roles such as a leader in which it operates (Wood et. al. 2010, p.252). My arrival as the new Manager created new norms and roles within the newly formed group. Furthermore, embracing emotions as an inseparable part of group situations will help improve team and organisational effectiveness, but emotions need to be carefully managed to avoid socially unacceptable emotions that could have negative effects on performance (Wood et. al. 2010, p.221).

In order to maximise the team outputs of task performance and group maintenance, good communication and developing a cohesive and open team are essential elements. Communication is the dynamic process of transmitting and receiving meaningful information (Thompson cited in Wiesner, 2010) and good organisational communication is built on good interpersonal communication (Wiesner, 2010). Cohesiveness can be effective if the group s performance norms are high (Wiesner, 2010) but they have to maintain openness, to be less likely to sacrifice decision quality for the sake of consensus (Thomas cited in Wiesner 2010), that is, minimising the chance of groupthink (Wood et. al. 2010, p.467).

Task 3: Recommendations (2 pages)

|Managing Attitudes and Perceptions |Rationale |Value change or strengthening work-related values, such | | highlight

|Values influence the attitudes and behaviours of people. Analysing

|as the proposal by Jamieson and O Mara, 1991 (in Wood et. al. 2010, p.53), can | |values to be improved or strengthened in order to bring about a positive change

| in values of | | and involve| |

|the individual, eg. Increase recognition and respect, allow some personal choices

|staff in the decisions for the office.

|Increase job satisfaction which highlights | | | | The manager | | feelings towards| | |360 appraisals people in contact |

|Using job satisfaction questionnaires, such as the Job Descriptive Index

|some facets of job satisfaction such as work responsibility, quality of supervision,

|promotion opportunities, and equity of pay and performance (Wood et al. 2010).

|can recognise and improve these areas to influence a development of positive

|the work.

|360 appraisals involve receiving feedback on job performance by various

| departments in | | a more

|with the employee, such as peers or colleagues, customers, members of other

|contact with them, and their manager. They are gaining in popularity as they give | |rounded view of performance and the employee is more likely to accept it as

| valid and be more| | |

|prepared to adjust performance in order to improve it. (Ellis & Dick, 2000, p. 52)

|Back to Basics best-way principles | | best-way

|#### as an organisation became very successful due to company wide

|that all stores and employees can follow. Individual and team revision of the | |expectations and qualities required for high performance can highlight missing

| elements in | | an

|individual behaviours. Using the tried and tested best-way principles may bypass | |individual s personal perceptions and attitudes, creating a focus on performance

| enhancing | | |

|behaviours. | |

|Leadership |In order to be effective, a leader must be warm, outgoing, kind, and trustworthy (Hartman | | control, but |1993). Leaders should not compromise team membership processes by imposing |

| |rather encourage and facilitate the team s self-managing capacity (Stewart &Barrick in Wood | | | |et al. 2010). Lead by example, a positive attitude can be contagious.

|Actions to improve motivation

|Rationale

|Integrate Motivation Theories |Using an integrated model of content and process motivation theories, such as that proposed |

| performance | intrinsic | | motivation. | | task | | rewards such| | allocated to | (Wood et al. | |

|by Porter & Lawler (1968, in Wood et al. 2010), that built on the individual | |equation (briefly outlined in Task 2.1 above), shows how utilising extrinsic and

|rewards can increase both job satisfaction and individual performance, and thus

|For example, Hertzberg s theory identifies intrinsic rewards, such as responsibility,

|achievement and the work itself, as motivators, and so too are certain extrinsic

|as recognition and job advancement. However, the rewards must be equitably | |increase job satisfaction and motivation, thus equity theory plays a key role.

|2010).

| |The individuals here have been experiencing low self-efficacy, so a

|Empowerment & SMT strategy of empowerment, | | implemented to |

|such as Conger &Kanungo s (cited in Wood et al. 2010, p.105-106), should be

| |improve employee s feelings of self-worth and their capacity to improve performance. (Wood et| | |al. 2010, p.108). Empowerment can lead the team towards becoming a selfmanaging team (SMT), | | |which are described as small groups of people empowered to manage themselves and the work | | | | guidelines to | | for their | |they do on a day-to-day basis (Wellins et al. cited in Wood et. al. 2010, p.259). As

|mentioned in Task 2.3 above, #### offices are expected to be run on similar

|SMTs. Even though there is a manager/team leader, each individual is responsible

| accountable for

|business, for sharing team duties, has a say in team decisions, and are |

| |overall team performance. Empowerment can increase motivation through employee recognition, | | | |Rewards rewards should be| | plus |involvement and a heightened sense of self-worth (Wood et al. 2010, p.104).

|Along with the above intrinsic rewards, the team and individual s extrinsic

|reviewed, and possibly new rewards introduced. Salary is made up of base salary |

| |commission from sales. As a company standard it does not recognise an individual s motivation| | al. 2010, | noted by Hertzberg that salary does not necessarily motivate people (Wood et | |p.92). Introduce tailored rewards that the team/individual finds motivating - for

| example, |

| |reach a weekly/monthly target and receive a half day off, or if preferred a monetary bonus; | | David set a | recognition, |reach a team bonus and receive a team dinner or team-building event; have | |strategy to become the next team leader which would increase salary, |

| |responsibility all motivating factors. Short-term achievable goals with motivating rewards | | | |can lead to increased motivation, performance and team maintenance.

|Actions to improve Group and Team |Rationale |Dynamics | |

|Team Growth and Communication - 4 sales people. Team growth |

|The office operates at high performance with a manager and 3

| and attitudes | | | | (Wood et al. | | | great | | | improving | | communication. | | greater ease | |

|through the recruitment of new or experienced staff with complementary skills

|is imperative. Establishing positive norms and clarified roles, combined with good

|communication systems, will enable high performance and personal satisfaction

|2010).

|The efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation s communications will have a | |bearing on its ability to achieve its objectives. While managers might have to take

|responsibility for formal communication networks, channels and systems, and for

|their own communication, all should be encouraged to understand and improve

|(Wiesner, 2010). The rewards include more satisfying personal relationships and

|in accomplishing our personal goals (Garside &Kleiner, 1991). |Successful team building and teamwork are assisted by clear goals, and

|Team Building accomplished by team | | be worked at | | performance | a

|members and their leaders. Teamwork does not always happen naturally, it must

|continuously and the efforts must relate to team maintenance as well as task | |(Wood et al. 2010, p.244). Guidelines can be followed for creating and sustaining

| |high-performing team, such as those listed by Katzenbach and Smith (1993). The

| team-building |

| |process should engage all team members in identifying problems and opportunities, planning |

| and conducting| | |

|appropriate actions, making individual commitments to implement these actions,

|appropriate evaluation and feedback activities. (Wood et al. 2010, p.266).

Task 4: Reflection (336 words)

Reflecting back on the scenario, after having the benefit of being able to critically analyse the situation, I can observe some things I did well and could have done better.

In regards to attitudes, I basically followed the Back to Basics and Leadership suggestions in Task 3 above, but it would have been advantageous to use the other suggestions also. However, I did have regular one-on-one s and team meetings to obtain valuable feedback, and put that to good use. We promoted having fun at work and to forget about the previous months. The only reflection was showing them high performance results from other teams that have been in that store, highlighting that it likely wasn t the office that had bad customers/location but the team not performing had bad attitudes and behaviours.

From day one having supervision and organisational support, David experienced reduced pressure and his attitude and motivation improved remarkably. Helen s attitude improved, however her motivation didn t. She was intent on travelling soon and her team participation and motivation for team goals was lacking. Thus, she was transferred to another store that needed part time assistance. This was an important step in team building, where one of the major factors is choosing the right team members.

By that time, we had recruited a new employee (Susie), as well as an experienced employee (Julie) from another #### office. With improved attitude from David and our combined motivation we were able to create a team focused on team and individual goals from the outset. Sales turnover increased dramatically, staff turnover was zero and we began receiving recognition at monthly events with rewards such as bonus money, team dinners and even a day at the horse races. This only added to the team s motivation and cohesiveness. Even though I moved on after 8 months, David replaced me as the Manager, something I am still very proud of, but I know if I had been able to use all of the above strategies, we could have performed even better.

List of References

Adams, J. S. 1963, Toward an understanding of inequity , Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 67, pp. 422-436.

Ellis, S. & Dick, P. 2000, Introduction to organizational behaviour, McGraw-Hill, London, p.43.

Garside, S. G. &Kleiner, B. H. 1991, EFFECTIVE ONE-TO-ONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS , Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 23 Iss: 7

Gersick, C 1988, Time and transition in work teams: towards a new model of group development , Academy of Management Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 9 41.

Hartman, L. 1993, A psychological analysis of leadership effectiveness , Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 27, Iss: 6, pp. 30-32.

Homans, G C. 1950, The human group, Harcourt Brace, New York cited in Wiesner, R. 2010, MGT5000 Management and organisationalbehaviour: Study book, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. Jamieson, D. & O Mara, J. 1991, Managing Workforce 2000, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 28-29, cited in Wood, J., Zeffane, R., Fromholtz, M., Fitzgerald, J., Wiesner, R., Creed, A., Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J. & Osborn, R. 2010, OrganisationalBehaviour: core concepts and applications, 2nd Australian edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Queensland, p. 53. Katzenbach, J. R. & Smith, D. K. 1993, The discipline of teams , Harvard Business Review, (March-April), 71(2), pp. 115. Mitchell, T. R. &Mickel, A. E. 1999, The meaning of money: An individual-difference perspective , Academy of Management Review, vol. 24, no. 3, pp 568-581.

Porter, L. W. & Lawler III, E. E. (1968), Managerial attitudes and performance, Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, IL, in Wood, J., Zeffane, R., Fromholtz, M., Fitzgerald, J., Wiesner, R., Creed, A.,

Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J. & Osborn, R. 2010, OrganisationalBehaviour: core concepts and applications, 2nd Australian edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Queensland. Stewart, G. L. &Barrick, M. R. 2000, Team structure and performance: assessing the mediating role of task type , Academy of Management Journal, pp. 135-48 cited in Wood, J., Zeffane, R., Fromholtz, M., Fitzgerald, J., Wiesner, R., Creed, A., Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J. & Osborn, R. 2010, OrganisationalBehaviour: core concepts and applications, 2nd Australian edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Queensland. Thomas, D. C. 1999, Cultural diversity and work group effectiveness , Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 242 63 cited in Wiesner, R. 2010, MGT5000 Management and organisationalbehaviour: Study book, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba.

Thompson, L. 2008, The mind and heart of the negotiator, Prentice Hall, London cited in Wiesner, R. 2010, MGT5000 Management and organisationalbehaviour: Study book, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba.

Tuckman, B. 1965, Developmental sequence in small groups , Psychological Bulletin, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 384 99.

Wiesner, R. 2010, MGT5000 Management and organisationalbehaviour: Study book, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. Wood, J., Zeffane, R., Fromholtz, M., Fitzgerald, J., Wiesner, R., Creed, A., Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J. & Osborn, R. 2010, OrganisationalBehaviour: core concepts and applications, 2nd Australian edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Queensland. End